In another coup for the content marketing industry, the latest ABC results have revealed the top three magazines in the UK are branded content titles - The National Trust, Asda and Tesco.

In total, six of the top 10 magazines in the ABCs top 100 magazines by circulation belong to own brands. Demonstrating the success of placing magazines in store in the right place at the right time, branded titles also deliver 70% of circulation of the top 10 circulated magazines in the UK, reaching over nine million consumers, and 84% of the top five.

Owned media is the fastest growing media channel (*25% increase in budgets year on year) and print continues to be an integral part of the mix for many major brands. Retail continues to lead all sectors with grocery titles still dominating: Asda leads with a circulation of just under two million, closely followed by Tesco (1.9m), Morrisons (1.3m) and Waitrose (659,000), brands which are all in the top 10. Waitrose Kitchen had a particularly strong ABCs, with its meteoric rise seeing its circulation nearly doubling year-on-year, with the highest growth out of the top 200 magazines in the UK – its result is especially notable given that it has a cover price.

Additional stand out performances from new entrants to the market include Pet People, which now reaches over 500,000 consumers every six months and sits at number 12 in the top 20.

Clare Hill, Managing Director of the Content Marketing Association, says: “Consumers continue to invest their time in high quality crafted editorial products as more and more brands take ownership of their own media channels. Critics argue that much of the success of content marketing magazines is down to the fact that many of them are free, yet Waitrose has a cover price and is the highest growing magazine this year. The most high profile consumer magazine launch in recent years has just come from the Net-A-Porter brand with a high cover price of £5, demonstrating that branded content and the content marketing discipline is both leading the ABC circulation charts and the competitive magazine industry.”